The Yale Summer Program in Astrophysics (YSPA) is a research and enrichment program hosted at the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium (LFOP) at Yale for 32 rising high school seniors (high school students who are juniors when they apply) who have shown an aptitude for science and math, an interest in astrophysics, and who are considering going into careers in scientific research. The program consists of a two-week online (June 23 through July 4, 2025), directed self-study program followed by a four-week residential program (July 6 through August 3, 2025). Students at YSPA live together in a dormitory, take classes at the Leitner Planetarium, learn to program and analyze data in the computer lab at the Leitner Observatory, and use the telescopes at the Leitner Observatory (as well as remote observatories) to collect data for their research project. At the end of the program, students write up their results in the form of a scientific paper and then present those results at our YSPA mini-conference.
